I feel that the subplot about Fritz and Natalie is a dangling thread. In any other storyline, a wedding would be a great place to end a romantic tale, but they were Jews in Nazi Germany! Did they flee the country while they still could? (Fritz had guts and Natalie had wisdom; I can see that option being likely.) Or were they doomed to die horribly? Even a hint at their fate would have brought closure to their story.
shareI assume they got out. After seeing what the Nazis did to her dog, I'm sure Natalie knew where things were heading.
Hooked on ebonics: "I love to see all the racists fall in for row call." -Shays Rebellion
Some people just can't understand a tale unless each subplot is wrapped up for them in a neat little bow. Their conflict was resolved. They married. Their story was concluded. What happened after that isn't part of the wider story.
shareCome on, it's a legitimate question. Fritz was a main character and it's natural to wonder how he ended up in the story.
Hooked on ebonics: "I love to see all the racists fall in for row call." -Shays Rebellion
Fritz was a supporting character, and his story was if his love for Natalia would overcome his hiding his Jewish roots. It was resolved. Complaining that the story "lacked closure" shows the OP doesn't understand structure. Using his logic, why not complain that we don't know how the future turned out for Sally and Brian as well?
shareNot really. Having a Jewish character in Nazi Germany proclaim his religion and then nothing more happens after that is certainly a dangling plot thread. It's like having the camera zoom in on a 5-second closeup of a gun and then no one gets shot and we never see the gun again.
shareCabaret takes place in 1931 longh before the Holocaust and this isn't a Holocaust-related story. But we sure know what their fate will be unless they get out of Germany quickly.
sharerrb says > ...why not complain that we don't know how the future turned out for Sally and Brian as well?We did get closure on Sally and Brian story. They were going to get married, move to England, and raise the baby he may or may not have fathered but Sally aborted the baby and clung to the fantasy of a career as an actress. That marked the end of their relationship so Brian returned to England alone. Sally, without skipping a beat, continued just as she had before; just as delusional as ever.
Fritz was a supporting character, and his story was if his love for Natalia would overcome his hiding his Jewish roots. It was resolved.The Fritz and Natalia story may have ended to your satisfaction but apparently not everyone felt the same way. I can see both sides but in this case I have to agree with you.
Complaining that the story "lacked closure" shows the OP doesn't understand structure.All movies don't follow the same patterns or have the same structure. Often scenes are edited out after the fact to adhere to time restrictions. The final version released to the public is the full movie yet we get the sense that something has been omitted. When it happens it often involves the supporting characters. I'm not saying that happened here. I don't know but you talk as if whatever you see is all there ever was or needs to be.
The subplot of all the characters is what happens. . . I like that the movie leaves all the subplots more "open" then the musical, where love is thwarted and the MC is doomed. . . but Nazi Germany was what it was. . . and we can't expect a lot of happy endings. . . but as this is fiction, we can imagine them.
Natalie is rich, so they most likely just moved to France, England or US.
shareIt depends if they were basically optimists or pessimists. Pessimists went to America. Optimists went to Auschwitz.
shareOptimists went to Auschwitz.
If they were wealthy, they would have had the means to get out, although the Nazis often confiscated property and they might have been safe in a foreign country, but destitute.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
Given that Natalia was already being harassed, her family might have gotten her and Fritz out before things got too bad for them. Plenty of Jews did get out in time. Perhaps they even went to England, and Brian helped them out. But we never know for sure. They could have stayed and been sent off to the camps like so many others too. The movie leaves it open.
About half of Germany's Jews emigrated before the outbreak of WW2 made it virtually impossible. Some, like Ann Frank's family, emigrated to countries like Holland that subsequently came under Nazi domination. Countries like the USA and Britain were safer but harder to reach and they were not necessarily rolling out the red carpet for refugees. People like Fritz and Natalie might well have made it to safe countries but perhaps at the cost of impoverishment.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
In the movie I Am A Camera (where the Fritz/Natalia subplot comes from), the two emigrate to Switzerland.
shareDepends how early they leave though, in 1931 perhaps they could've left with their assets still.
sharethey were rich, so would probably have got out of germany okay. About half the jewish population of germany had left by the time Ww2 started.
share